Aug. 14--REPORTING FROM SAN FRANCISCO -- A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy may be held liable for arresting a public defender for failing to immediately obey a judge's summons to her courtroom, a federal appeals court decided Friday.
In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Deputy Wai Chiu R. Li could not reasonably have believed that he had the right to handcuff and "forcibly" bring Deputy Public Defender Florentina Demuth to a Downey courtroom where a judge wanted her present.
The court described the dispute as a matter of "wounded pride" that never should have turned into a federal case.
"The dispute should have been resolved by an admission that the deputy violated Demuth's constitutional rights, followed by mutual apologies and a handshake, saving the taxpayers of Los Angeles County the considerable costs of litigating this tiff, " Judge Alex Kozinski wrote for the three-judge panel.
The incident occurred in 2010 at the Los Padrinos Juvenile Courthouse.
Demuth checked into the courtoom where her client's case was to be heard and indicated she would return in the afternoon.
Demuth then went to her office at the courthouse and did other work.
Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >>
Heidi Shirley, who as a court referee is a judicial officer, then decided she wanted to call Demuth's case. She tried to summon Demuth by page and telephone. Demuth heard at least one page and the ringing of her telephone, but did not respond.
"This was not unusual," Kozinski wrote. "Lawyers, especially public defenders, were often absent from the courtroom when their case was called, and it typically took some time -- and a few pages -- to get them there."
At the time, Demuth was with Patricia De La Guerra Jones, her supervisor, working on an assignment.
Referee Shirley then ordered Li, assigned to the courtroom, to find Demuth.
"Alright, I order Ms. Demuth to come to this courtroom," the court quoted the judicial officer as saying. "If she refuses, then Ms. De La Guerra Jones will have to come in and explain to me why this is happening."
Li found Demuth in her office with her supervisor and told her she was wanted in court. He said she was not ready to go and told him he would have to handcuff her to get her there.
"While challenging someone equipped with a badge, handcuffs and a gun to 'arrest me' was unwise on Demuth's part," Kozinski wrote, "we fail to see what legal difference her statement makes."
He said Demuth was obviously being sarcastic and in any case, could not have authorized her own arrest.
Li then cuffed Demuth and brought her to court. Demuth sued.
A lower court found the deputy had violated Demuth's 4th Amendment right to be free of unreasonable seizure, but said he had immunity as a government employee. The 9th Circuit disagreed.
"No reasonable officer could have understood the referee as ordering that Demuth be forcibly brought into court," Kozinski wrote.
Still, Kozinski said, no one in the case "covered himself with glory."
"Not the lawyer whose lackadaisical response to a judicial summons and disrespectful retort to a fellow court officer set off this unfortunate chain of events; not the supervisor who did not urge the lawyer to comply promptly with the deputy's repeated requests that she come to court or admonish her for her tart response to the deputy; not the deputy who took the bait and abused his power; not the judges of the Los Padrinos Juvenile Court, who, doubtless aware of the incident, failed to mediate a minor dispute among court officers and allowed it to metastasize into a federal case," Kozinski wrote.
Demuth could not immediately be reached for comment.
The county may now be required to pay Demuth monetary damages.
"What seems to be at stake here is little more than wounded pride, as any damages suffered by the plaintiff seem hardly more than nominal," Kozinski wrote.
ALSO:
Former L.A. County sheriff's captain agrees to plead guilty in jail scandal
Sheriff's deputy drowns while trying to rescue friend in Lake Tahoe
Man gets life without parole in 'ritualistic killing' in downtown L.A. hotel
